UN legal experts sound the alarm because 3 members of the Saudi Arabian Howeitat tribewho opposed the mega project Neom and the futuristic city The Line have protested, appear to be about to be executed, reports the Guardian. The 3 men – Shadly Ahmad Mahmoud Abou Taqiqa al-Huwaiti, Ibrahim Salih Ahmad Abou Khalil al-Huwaiti and Atallah Moussa Mohammed al-Huwaiti – were sentenced to death under an anti-terrorist law last August. In fact, according to the UN experts, they were arrested because they had resisted the eviction.
According to UN experts, states that have not yet abolished the death penalty can only use it for the “most serious crimes” involving intentional killing. The actions the 3 men are accused of would fall short of that threshold. According to the UN staff, 3 other members of the tribe were also serving jail terms between 27 and 50 years sentenced.
All 6 were convicted under a “vague” 2017 anti-terrorism law. Some of them may also have been tortured to extract confessions, the UN experts write in a publication published last week Statement. They called on Saudi Arabia to review the verdicts.
concerns about the project
The UN experts also raised concerns about the NEOM project as a whole, citing allegations by human rights groups that members of the Howeitat tribe were being evicted from their villages without adequate compensation. Resistance to the eviction is said to have been violently suppressed. It is said that a man was also killed in 2020.
Appeal to investors and companies
They called on companies and investors involved in the project to ensure that the project would not cause any human rights violations. Recently, voices have also been raised warning of total surveillance of the future residents of the city of The Line, which is part of the mega-project.
